The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
An internal combustion vehicle is designed to obtain main energy by burning fossil fuels, whereas an electric vehicle uses electricity as a main energy source. Therefore, it is desired for the electric vehicle to include a high-voltage battery to store electric energy therein, a motor to generate power, and an inverter to drive the motor.
A charger for charging a battery of the electric vehicle may be classified into a slow-speed charger and a high-speed charger. The slow-speed charger may transmit commercial AC power to a vehicle without change. The high-speed charger may convert commercial AC power into DC power, and may transmit the DC power to the vehicle. The slow-speed charger has a simplified structure and is inexpensive, such that the slow-speed charger can be easily developed and rapidly become widespread. However, in order to use the slow-speed charger, an On Board Charger (OBC) needs to be mounted to the electric vehicle.
There are various kinds of AC powers provided through the slow-speed charger according to individual countries in which slow-speed chargers are used. In order to charge a battery of the electric vehicle using various kinds of AC powers, it is desired for On Board Chargers (OBCs) to cope with various kinds of AC power.
As a battery of the electric vehicle has higher capacity, a range of the electric vehicle provided with the battery also increases. Therefore, many developers and vehicle companies are conducting intensive research on technology for increasing battery capacity of electric vehicles. However, charging time of a large-capacity battery unavoidably increases. We have discovered that if the OBC capacity increases, the charging time of the large-capacity battery decreases and that the increasing OBC capacity may unavoidably increase the size of constituent elements of the electric vehicle and production costs of the electric vehicle.